DETROIT — There are marriages made in heaven. And then there are matches made in Torii Hunter’s cell phone.

Hunter, last year’s perfect marriage of team need and player desire, made his feelings known to Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski early in this year’s free-agent process, pushing for the team to sign his former teammate, closer Joe Nathan.

When the team did just that, finalizing a two-year deal — with a team option for a third, and totaling a reported $20 million for the guaranteed two years — on Wednesday, Dombrowski gave Hunter a tip of the cap for his match-making.

“We also want to thank your assistant agent, Torii Hunter, too. He contacted us in the very beginning about, ‘Why don’t you make this happen?’ ” Dombrowski said, tongue in cheek, at a news conference at Comerica Park, introducing the 39-year-old Nathan as the team’s new closer.

“We’re thrilled, because we identified for ourselves a situation where the No. 1 goal in the winter-time would be to come up with a premium closer. We felt that he was the best closer out there. We did have conversations with other people, but he was really a guy we identified from the very beginning. He’s proven. We think he’s the type of guy that can pitch for a club that has a chance to win a championship, so it’s a great marriage.”

And Hunter was the one who set it all up?

“Apparently, he was. We definitely were in contact. We talked one time, and we both expressed how much I wanted to be here, and he expressed how much he wanted it to happen, and he was going to get on the phone to make it happen, make a call to the GM. I appreciate his work, but I know that Dave (Pepe, Nathan’s agent) was hard at work, as well. I’m sure that’s what got it done, not so much what Torii did,” Nathan said with a grin.

“This was the club that we ultimately wanted to be with.”

That was the same way it played out with Hunter, who was the No. 1 target for the Tigers last offseason, and vice-versa.

This year’s marriage fills just as important a hole for the Tigers, who haven’t really had someone you could call a lock-down closer since Jose Valverde’s 49-for-49 season in 2011, if you even want to qualify that as such. The Tigers went through several options at closer last season, before settling on former set-up man Joaquin Benoit near midseason. He is a free agent, and currently unsigned. He’s also unlikely to be back in his old role, now that the Tigers have signed Nathan.

“I don’t see Joaquin coming back as a set-up guy, no,” Dombrowski said. “I think somebody will probably sign him, from all indications, as a possible closer somewhere, so I don’t see that being a fit for us.”

While Benoit did a very good job for the Tigers in that role in the regular season, the sore spot of the bullpen was glaring in the postseason. And Benoit was a neophyte at the position, having never recorded more than six saves in a season.

Not so with Nathan, who’s currently tied for 10th on Major League Baseball's all-time saves list (341), and the active leader now that Mariano Rivera has retired. Nathan has four 40-save seasons, and recorded 80 over the last two seasons in Texas.

“Should be good for 100-plus saves the next couple of years,” Dombrowski joked, as he settled Nathan’s No. 36 jersey on him at the press conference.

Nathan: “That’s the plan.”

And that’s a large part of the reason Nathan chose to come to Detroit: The chance to win.

“Why would I come here? Shoot. I think the question is, ‘Why wouldn’t I?’ This team is ready to win, this team can win now. Not just win, but — like I said before — it’s not just getting to the postseason, but for me, it’s about getting to the big one, getting to the World Series, and that’s been something that’s not been a part of my career. It’s eluded me. That’s what it’s all about for me,” he said.

“I just think this is going to be a lot of fun. This has always been a club that I’d admired from the other side. They always looked like they were having a good time playing this game. I don’t think it’s going to be any different coming over here. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun to join this team, and we can produce a lot of wins. That’s what it’s all about.”

And it’s the reason that Nathan stated early on — publicly, not just to Hunter — that he wanted to come to Detroit. That was reciprocated, although Dombrowski said that Brian Wilson — the former San Francisco closer who finished last season with the Dodgers — was the other of the two main targets the Tigers had, going into the offseason.

That doesn’t matter to Nathan, who got what he wanted.

“I’m just super excited. I think from the moment we became a free agent, I think this was the No. 1 club we had our eyes set on. And were hoping this day would happen. For us to be sitting here, and getting it done, signing the papers today, getting a chance to talk to y’all, is a dream come true. I’m excited for February to come, and get out on the field,” Nathan said.

“Even though I know a lot of guys on the club, whether by playing with them, or against them for so many years, it’s going to be nice to get on the field and be teammates with them, get 2014 started.

“Everybody has one goal in mind, and that’s not just win, it’s win a championship. That’s why we’re here.”

Hunter and Nathan played together for the American League Central rival Minnesota Twins — Nathan calls Game 163 in 2009 “definitely the best game I’ve ever played in. ... Sorry to bring it up.”

But he’s not the only guy with whom Nathan has played, or who he’s looking forward to joining. Ian Kinsler, acquired from Texas in trade for Prince Fielder on Nov. 20, was Nathan’s teammate for the last two years with the Rangers.

“Obviously, for me, I’m excited that they were able to pick him up in trade, and obviously with this being where I wanted to be — I didn’t know if it was going to happen, but knowing I wanted to come here — I was excited to follow him here. It’s going to be fun to play with him for a few years. Fans here are going to fall in love with him. They’re going to see right away he’s something special,” Nathan said.

“I’m excited to rejoin with guys like Torii Hunter, Ian Kinsler. I’m also getting a chance to watch Miguel Cabrera play on a daily basis, which is going to be special for me. Getting a chance to watch (Justin) Verlander and (Max) Scherzer go out, and see what they do on a daily basis, and see what they do, as far as preparing themselves. This is a game about learning. You can learn, even though I’m 39 years old. I’m going to learn a lot from them.”

Dombrowski also touched on various topics concerning the Tigers on Wednesday:

-- He made it official that Miguel Cabrera will move back over to first base, and Nick Castellanos will replace him at third base. “We talked about it internally, right after the trade. ... We felt it would be the best situation for the Tigers,” Dombrowski said. “It was a matter of timing, touching base.” Cabrera concurred, when Dombrowski spoke with him.

Castellanos, when contacted by new manager Brad Ausmus, said he’d been taking grounders at third base since the Fielder trade was announced.

-- Since closer was the No. 1 priority, is there a new No. 1, now that the first has been filled?

“I think as we’ve always said, there’s no perfect club. You can always address your next spot. I don’t have what I would say is a glaring ‘OK this is going to be our next step.’ We’ll just see if we can improve our ballclub various ways,” Dombrowski said, before later backtracking a bit, and identifying left field as a possible spot to add a player, considering the Tigers are short of outfielders, with Castellanos moving back to the infield. “I’m sure we'll have to do something else, in some regard, because we’re limited in our outfielders.”

-- That doesn’t mean that the Tigers will be players for any of the remaining big-name free agents that they’ve been tied to, like Shin-Soo Choo.

“I would think that we would not be involved in the big free-agent market,” Dombrowski said. “Again, we’re on Dec. 5, but I don’t anticipate any of the major names that are out there, that our name’s attached with, I don’t anticipate those be our signings.”

-- Several of the team’s earlier moves described as giving the Tigers “flexibility” to do other things. One of those was getting a closer. Are they related?

“I can’t say they’re all directly, per se, related, but they’re all related to some extent,” Dombrowski said.

Even after that, are the Tigers in a better position to maybe extend long-term the contract of one of their soon-to-be free agents than they were at the start of the offseason?

“Without using names, I’d say yes we are,” Dombrowski said.

-- Minor-league infielder Dixon Machado was designated for assignment to clear room on the 40-man roster.

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Read his “Out of Left Field” blog at opoutofleftfield.blogspot.com.